June 23, 1904] 



NATURE 



179 



ESGLISH FIKf.D-AXTHROI'OLOGV.' 

 'T^HE first organised mission sent out from this 

 '^ country for purely anthropological research was 

 the outcome of Dr. Haddon's visit to Torres Straits in 

 18SS, when he began to collect materials for a study of 

 the natives. Ten years later, with the assistance of a 

 fully-equipped expedition, he was able to complete the 

 \v (irlv. The reports will occupy six volumes, of which 

 lhi> is the first to be completed ; two parts of volume ii. 

 (I'hysiology and Psychology) have 

 already appeared. 



These savages constitute the 

 ethnological frontier between 

 .Australia and New (iuinea, but 

 are distinctly Papuan. Thev 

 have been in contact with white 

 jjearl-shellers and missionaries for 

 about thirty years, and most of 

 them are now Christianised. 

 Though they are not a people of 

 striking idiosyncrasy, such as the 

 .\runta of Central .Australia, and 

 do not add to the romance of 

 fthnology, )'et this careful study 

 of them has enriched science with 

 several unique facts and manv 

 variations from type which will 

 have considerable influence iipim 

 theory. 



The account of the social 

 organisation is based upon care- 

 fully revised genealogies, com- 

 piled by Dr. Rivers, which form 

 a register of births, marriages 

 and deaths, extending back for a 

 hundred years. The method is 

 an excellent one. The native 

 system of kinship is the classifi- 

 catory, with three non-essential 

 features, which are develoised in 

 a remarkable way. The first of 

 these is the practice of exchang- 

 ing names, which seems to have 

 ibee<i almost as common as, say, 

 our custom of exchanging cards. 

 The task of the genealogist was 

 thus rendered very laborious. 

 Secondly, the number of reci- 

 jjrocal terms is unprecedentedly 

 large. Thus the term tukoial^ 

 denotes the relationshi]) of brother 

 to brother and sister to sister; it 

 is also used — and here the classifi- 

 catorv svstem appears — of all men 

 of the same generation in the 

 father's clan, the mother's clan, 

 .and the father's mother's clan, 

 also of the sons of a brother and 

 those of a sister, and of the sons 

 of two sisters. Brothers' wives, 

 however, are not called " wives " l 



of i\i;o ; nor is there any trace of 



group-marriage. Polyg'amv was once frequent, but 

 ])olvandrv is unknown. The terms of relationship 

 .-ire ;ilso used as terms of address. In the third place 

 we have what is perhajjs the best example extant of 

 the regulation of social duties and privileges by kin- 

 ship. The division both of labour and of rights is 



' " Reports of the Cambridge .\nlhropological Expedition to Torres 

 Straits. Vol. V. Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Western Islanders." 

 Edited by A. C. Haddon, Sc.D., F.R.S., Fellow of Christ's College, Lec- 

 turer on Ethnology in the Ifniversity of Cambridge. Pp. xii + ^yS ; plates' 

 xxii. (Caicbridge: At the University Press, 1904.) Price255.net. 



thus harmoniously arranged. .An apparently unique 

 instance is the power of stopping fights, belonging 

 especially to the relationship of wadwam (the reci- 

 procal term for maternal uncle and nephew). 



Totemism is very fully developed, both in its social 

 and religious aspects, and has important peculiarities. 

 Besides the principal totern a clan possesses a sub- 

 sidiary one. Two important totems are crescent- 

 shaped ornaments of tortoise-shell, with no reference 

 to any animal or plant ; they are rnerelv decorative relics 



\0. 1808, VOL. 70] 



u-.- I. -Performer at the Saw lish I')ance, Waibun. 



from the wardrobe of the hero Kwoi;im, a warrior 

 whose exploits form a consitli r.ibli- s.ig.-i .-md who is 

 more or less definitely ^l|h,i1i, ,isis,d. These relics 

 resemble in the powers attatlu'd to them the churinga 

 of the Central .Australians. But Kwoiam himself 

 is a totem ! Magical ceremonies are performed, as in 

 Australia, to increase the supply of the totem animals 

 as well as of the crops. \n interesting feature of 

 totemic society is the way in which the clan members 

 try to live up to the character of their totems. The 



